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"This
Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous
and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth. Germany, Japan
and, to a lesser extent, Britain
and Italy
were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in
billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts.
None of
these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining
debts to the United
States. When France was in danger of collapsing in
1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to
be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When
earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries
in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by
tornadoes. Nobody helped. The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy
pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers
in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering
Americans.
I'd like
to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of
the United States
dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have
a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the
Douglas DC10?
If so,
why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia
fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider
putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese
technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and
you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find
men on the moon - not once, but several times - and safely home again.
You talk
about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window
for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and
hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they
are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa
at home to spend here.
When the
railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down
through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the
Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody
loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can
name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other
people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else
raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help
even during the San Francisco
earthquake.
Our
neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired
of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing
with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb
their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada
is not one of those."
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